New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm, a part of Reliance Industries, and Sunil Mittal led Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced a comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing arrangement under which they will share infrastructure created by both companies.
The arrangement will include optic fibre network (inter and intra city), submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services and other such opportunities identified in the future.
Reliance Jio Infocomm, which is the only company to hold pan-India licence for 4G services is looking to start its telecom services soon.
After the rollout of its services, Reliance Jio is expected to compete with Bharti in the wireless broadband business.
The cooperation between Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel is aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment. On Monday, Ambani had hinted at his willingness to partner with Bharti Airtel.
The statement said that the arrangement could, in future, be extended to roaming on 2G, 3G and 4G, and any other mutually benefiting areas relating to telecom, including jointly laying optic fibre or other forms of infrastructure services. Even though no financial details were given, the companies said that the pricing would be at “arm’s length”, based on the prevailing market rates.
As part of this arrangement, Bharti and Reliance Jio have announced an agreement under which Bharti has provided capacity on its i2i submarine cable to Reliance Jio. Reliance Jio had signed a similar agreement with Anil Ambani-led RCom in April for sharing their existing and future telecom infrastructure.
